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Date: 10/12/2022
AMHERST – On Oct. 16, the Hitchcock Center for the Environment will celebrate its 60th anniversary with the Hitchcock Harvest and Feast, featuring live music, locally sourced food and drink, tours of the building and its gardens, mission-based activities and a short program. The feast marks the center’s first live event since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and it will be the first time the center has hosted a harvest event in its history.
The Hitchcock Center began as nature center on a Leverett farm in 1962, founded by Ethel Dubois. In 1971 it was incorporated as a nonprofit organization, and by 1975 it had moved locations to the Larch Hill Conservation Area in South Amherst.
In 2016 it moved into its current location on the Hampshire College campus, renowned for its status as a “living building,” a regenerative, sustainably built structure that connects occupants with nature. According to the center’s Director of Development and Communications Kim Snyder, it is the 23rd such building in existence worldwide, replete with “solar panels, compostable toilets, mechanisms for collecting rainwater and healthy, locally sourced materials.”
Snyder said the center’s mission is to “educate and inspire action for a healthy planet.” This often manifests as educational services for youth, but Snyder said that it is not “just” a teaching center or a nature reserve.
“We specialize in helping people develop skills needed to create climate solutions and foster climate resilience by helping them reconnect to and learn from nature’s efficient and sustainable systems to develop a problem-solving mindset and to shape a positive vision for the future … We like to say that we are developing hopeful, creative problem solvers who can take on the challenges of climate change,” Snyder said.
Hitchcock educators teach a wide variety of programs in schools throughout Western Massachusetts. In addition to their programming during the school year, the center hosts multiple nature camps over the summer and holiday periods. Homeschooling groups also visit the Hitchcock for educational services.
They have a permanent program at the Holyoke YMCA and will soon be launching a STEM initiative in every public third grade classroom in Springfield thanks to a grant awarded by the Institution of Museums and Libraries Services.
“Approaching STEM from a sustainable engineering and design challenge standpoint, getting kids to think about using the model of nature in design … they might do an engineering challenge where they create the best roof water capture system…then there’s an educational component as to how and why we would do that. Then that might culminate in a trip to our center, where they can see that water capture system at use in real life,” she said.
The center also provides teen programming teaching “communication, organization and leadership building.” They host professional development workshops for teachers to aid them in teaching about matters related to science and the environment. Snyder said that the center also “convenes adults for discourse and civic engagement regarding climate change and sustainability.”
The Harvest and Feast will be catered by local vendors, including Black Birch Vineyard, Carr’s Ciderhouse, Katalyst Kombucha, Progression Brewing and White Lion Brewing for beverages, and Wheelhouse Catering for food. Snyder said that the farm-fresh local food will serve as a lesson on “how we all rely on the sun and nature” for sustenance.
The Harvest takes place from 3 to 6 p.m. on the Hitchcock Center grounds, located at 845 West St. in South Amherst. Tickets are available on the center’s website for $60 each. The center relies mostly on private donations to fund its operation, and the feast is a fundraising event; however, even those who cannot attend can still donate on the website to support the center’s mission.